MP Frank Valeriote’s riding association has been found guilty of breaking rules and fined $4,900.

OTTAWA—The federal Liberal campaign for the fiercely contested riding of Guelph has been found guilty of breaking CRTC rules on robocalls and fined $4,900.

The finding by the telecommunications regulator comes as another federal investigation by Elections Canada continues to probe the local Conservative campaign’s connections to allegedly misleading “robocalls” which are suspected of suppressing voter turnout.

Liberal MP Frank Valeriote, who won the Guelph contest against Conservative Marty Burke, agreed his riding association would pay the $4,900 fine and cooperated with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission investigation, the agency said in a news release Friday.

His campaign violated “unsolicited telecommunications rules” when it failed to identify to voters the name and number behind the auto-dialled calls, or provide an alternate callback number.

The robocalls were made during a one-hour period just two days before the 2011 election and warned against the Conservative candidate’s views on abortion.

The message, recorded in a woman’s voice, said: “The race in Guelph is very close . . . vote strategically on Monday to protect our hard-earned rights from the Conservatives and Marty’s extreme views.”

On top of the fine, Valeriote’s riding association has vowed future compliance, the assignment of a worker to see it plays by the rules, better training for its volunteers, better record-keeping and clear arrangements with third-party companies who undertake campaign work.

In a written statement released by his office, Valeriote characterized the robocalls as an honest mistake.

He said the calls were “designed to educate Guelph voters about specific policy differences between myself and an opponent. We were unaware of certain requirements and inadvertently neglected to include some identifying features in the message, such as a phone number and address.”

On Friday, Valeriote apologized publicly, and called it an “important learning experience” for him and all candidates.

“I take full responsibility and apologize for the infringement.”

The Conservative Party of Canada wasted no time in slamming Valeriote and the Liberal campaign for “dirty tricks” and “shameful attempts to “cover up these misleading calls” by claiming it was an “issue-based” call within the rules.

Conservative spokesman Fred DeLorey in an emailed statement to reporters said: “One can’t help but wonder, without these misleading phone calls to voters, would the election outcome in Guelph have been different?

“The Liberal Party has some explaining to do — How many other Liberal campaigns broke Canadian telecommunication rules? How many used robocalls to mislead Canadian voters?”

The CRTC’s finding, damaging as it is for the Liberals and their attempt to portray the Conservatives as cheaters, is separate from the probe by Elections Canada into another series of robocalls on voting day that directed voters to

non-existent or wrong polling stations.

The Conservative party denies any official involvement in a local or nationwide vote suppression effort. In the case of Guelph, it did not rule out a possible role by overzealous rogue supporters.

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